Bewick's Swan (c?)

Hi everyone,

I haven't posted an image for some time due to work pressures and broken computer Well I have fixed the latter at least and was down at Slimbridge on Saturday. This is one of the images I got that I liked although I have a question about the cropping. Can anyone suggest a better crop for this? Comments are, as always, welcome. The (c?) indicates that I haven't the faintest idea whether this is a captive bird or not - Sorry. The technical details are:
- Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk IIN
- Lens: Canon 500mm f4 IS
- Aperture: f5.6 +1/3
- Shutter Speed: 1/1250s
- ISO: 400
- Metering: Evaluative
- Exposure Control: Aperture Priority
- Camera Support: Gitzo 1325 + Wimberley Gimbal
- RAW Conversion: RawShooter Premium
- Post Processing: Levels, Curves, USM
Many thanks for looking,
Adrian

Refreshing change to Bewicks swimming in the water, - not too sure how you got this low for the angle

The composition works for me

On whether it is a (c) or not,- my initial reaction is that it is a wild bird - there does not appear to be any leg rings of any description, although on the raised leg it is hard to confirm this, a WWT captive bird would be tagged with at least an aluminium ring.......

Mike,

I dug a hole . Actually I managed to get down lower than the bird because it was sort of on a hump near one of the "lakes". Getting up again proved difficult though and involved several cranes

Thanks for the comments esp. about the composition.

Adrian

Adrian - I do like the comp and pose

The whites however seem to be low on detail in the highlights - I get the sneaky suspicion that if you converted the CR2 file with the standard Eos software or CapOne instead of that rather notorious 'thing' you use you might find there's more detail to be had in the highlights

I like it and guess that it may well be a wild bird too as they are regulars down that way, as Mike has said it's nice to see one out of the wet stuff
As for the highlights they seem to be ok on my laptop screen, looks spot on here.
Cheers
Brian

Andy and Brian,

Thanks for the comments. Andy I will take a look at the EOS converter - Unfortunately my PC runs Win 2k at the moment (Am trying to spec a new machine ) and can't run the Capture One 4 Beta as the minimum is Win XP. But will get it asap - thanks for the hint

Adrian

The pose and framing hit the spot for me Adrian

Agree the processing needs some tweaking, but a fine shot!

Alan